Hy3 Open vs 
o4 Mini Paid
Hy3 vs o4 Mini compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
Hy3 vs o4 Mini specs
| Spec | Hy3 | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Tencent | OpenAI |
| Type | Open-weight | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Input price | $0.13/M · free self-host | $1.1/M |
| Output price | $0.53/M · free self-host | $4.4/M |
| Vision / multimodal | No | Yes |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No (API only) |
| License | Open weights | Proprietary |
Feature comparison
| Capability | Hy3 | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✓ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✗ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: Hy3 vs o4 Mini
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How Hy3 and o4 Mini score
| Criterion | Hy3 | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Context window | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 5.0 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 5.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 3.5 | 5.0 |
Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.
What each model is
Hy3 Open
Hy3 is a 295B-parameter Mixture-of-Experts model from Tencent (21B active, 192 experts with top-8 routing) built for reasoning, agentic workflows, and real-world production use. It supports a configurable reasoning effort:...
o4 Mini Paid
OpenAI o4-mini is a compact reasoning model in the o-series, optimized for fast, cost-efficient performance while retaining strong multimodal and agentic capabilities. It supports tool use and demonstrates competitive reasoning...
Other models in these families
These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hy3 as good as o4 Mini?
Hy3 is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but o4 Mini may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.
Can I run Hy3 locally?
Yes. Hy3 has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. o4 Mini is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.
How much cheaper is Hy3?
Hy3 costs $0.53/M output vs $4.4/M for o4 Mini — roughly 8x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.
Hy3 vs o4 Mini — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose Hy3 if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose o4 Mini if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.
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